SteveinA2

This will be way worse than 2008
Delta announced a 40% cut
Starting next week business taravel will pretty much be non existent as corporations not only prevent travel but also visitors

I also think it will have a long term negative impact as folks realize you can conduct meetings without spending $10,000 on a RT to Europe. Who realistically thinks in budgeting season companies will (after a tough year) allow a YOY increase in T&E

chicagoflyer1976

I think it's too early to decide what to do. If we continue in this state of "no travel" for months and months, extending makes sense since people can't qualify. If this eases up soon (in the next few weeks or even by June), I think offering DEQDs would make sense, since people will be able to fly again and qualify.
Personally, extending status for 6 months really doesn't mean much, unless they are going to give me addtional SWUs. My spot on the upgrade list would be low since my EQDs will have fallen off a cliff.

footballfanatic

exactly this, and combined with previous post about tight travel budgets—I think extending status is the smarter play.

LibertyLobbyist

I hope they do a simple status carryover for 2021.

sassysan

I thought this would be my last year with Platinum Pro since I've had fewer reasons to fly nowadays. Hoping they blanket extend status so I get to keep enjoying UDUs for another year. I always ran out of stickers back in the Gold/Platinum days.

ryan182

That's essentially, at least as I understand it, what Finnair did. Their program is different than AAs in that your join date is the start of your qualification period and it runs for 12 months from that date rather than the calendar year.

SJOGuy

You are a class act, QueenOfCoach. Hugs to you (well, virtual hugs at this time).

flyingeph12

That's my understanding as well. AY will extend everyone's status and tracking period by 6 months.

MikeShores

The initial corporate travel restrictions will only be the beginning. As has been mentioned, many corporations (also affected by the economics of this virus) will realize how much they can accomplish via teleconference, especially as the capabilities have increased greatly. After 9/11, many companies restricted all but extremely necessary business travel. This will be similar to that. It could take years for the volume of corporate travelers to return to what it was last year. Luckily for me, my business travel is necessary. I am doing remote training sessions out of a necessity to keep a client on schedule, but no one is happy about that situation. The back half of this year looks to be a busy one for me travel-wise as we work to catch up. BTW, our official policy is NO corporate travel (car included) for 30 days (4/12). It's also been highly recommended that we postpone or cancel any personal travel during this same timeframe.

It would be nice if AA extended status for another year, but to play devil's advocate, if they didn't it would be an easy way to determine who the prized corporate travelers are...going forward as there may be some changes to corporate policies making once-prized travelers essentially grandfathered and not as prized.

SteveinA2

AA will match 2020 status into 2021.
They'd be crazy not to.
In addition they will offer extreme incentives to customer's to revert to 2019 travel levels

Now I imagine AA will wait for Delta and just copy - as recent sad history implies AA's marketing dept is in ATL
But mark my words anyone with status in 2020 will be matched in 2021
Just ask Jon in NYC he will confirm in June? or maybe earlier

deac83

After 911, AA extended status, but remember that happened in September so it was pretty clear who was on track. The could do something similar as travel returns, say June, and see who kept flying.

Personally I was at 85k miles that year but was Platinum, they would not bump me up. I was basically on the some of the first flights back home and then back out, but they gave me no credit for continuing to fly the rest of the year.

Since I was not EXP, I don't remember the details but the reason I asked them to bump me up was because they were rolling people over with less miles than I had that year.

I will also say that I work for a Big 4 and we we are essentially cutting off all travel until 4/30 ( you can assume the rest are doing the same). If the Big 4 are not traveling then practically no one is travelling on business. My client has also prohibited all external visitors until mid-April.

Business travel is going to 10% or below for the next 6 weeks imo.

redtop43

I made EXP in 2020 for the first and last time. I was planning to make PPro in 2020 for 2021. All my travel is personal. I would obviously be very happy if they extended status or has a promotion.

However, I had been wanting to go on a vacation to Italy for a very long time, and have one booked for the first week of August, using two of my four SWU's. It's only my second overseas trip ever. If the tour company cancels the tour they'll obviously have to refund my money, and AA policy will allow me to get that money back (the ticket was about $1500), but I'll be extremely sad if I go in 2021 but can't use the SWU's I earned for use in 2020.

It's still 4 1/2 months away, and a lot can happen by then. Italy can have eradicated the disease by then. Or everyone in Italy who hasn't died of the disease may have it by then. Obviously I know which one I'm rooting for (and for reasons far transcending my own travel plans.)

scubadu

At this point, nobody has any idea what the "back half of this year" will bring. To pretend otherwise is pure folly.

I don't believe most on FT fathomed in any way, shape, or form that we would be where we are today even as little as 2 weeks ago. It could certainly get better by the back half of the year, but that isn't a given.

One thing I think many on FT are missing, and frankly, I don't consider myself a "this time is different" type person, but on 9/11 the travel industry was deeply effected, airlines in particular, but much of the rest of business and commerce continued on. Right now, we are basically powering down the entire global economic engine. Unfortunately, that is indeed quite different than 9/11.

Regards

ChurnieEls

AA is the most financially at risk of the US3, so this will be massively impactful on them. There's a ton of debt that needs paying and unlikely to be the material cashflow required to do so in the coming months.

Well this didn't age well.

This is going to be multiples worse than 9/11.

UA putting the feelers out already for a bailout... DL grounding 300 aircraft...

This is unprecedented.

dstan

AA will do whatever is best for its bottom line. Doesn't matter what we hope or wish for, or what seems fair. To the extent that customer loyalty impacts their bottom line, they will take actions to preserve it, balanced against the revenue implications. If other airlines take action, AA will follow suit to remain competitive. Think about the March 1-16 (later March 1-30) change fee waiver for new bookings - that was designed to drive new bookings, not help existing customers (though they were later forced to do so).

If I had to guess, I would imagine some combination of accommodation while also incentivizing revenue travel thru the end of the fiscal year. Maybe double EQM. Just a guess, of course.